Saturday, January 14, 2012

Brandon Food Truck Rally, Riverview, FL

It was a big day here in Velveetaville...Brandon had its first Food Truck Rally (thank you, Tasting Tampa!). With sunshine and temps hovering around 60 degrees, it was a perfect day for standing in line...which was a good thing, because the lines were verylong. Not that I'm complaining...it was great to see such an enthusiastic turnout for non-chain restaurant food in East Hillsborough County. Gave me hope.

Underdog and I arrived midway through the event (around 1:00) and wished we'd come earlier. UD, who is ever the strategist, suggested that we separate and stand in line for two of the trucks that immediately caught our attention. He queued up at Stinky Bunz while I hiked to end of the interminable line at Cafe Rouge, with visions of Fried Haddock with Hand Cut Fries, White Chocolate Strawberry Creme Brulee and Butternut Squash Soup with Truffle Oil dancing in my head...all of which were struck from the menu one-by-one during the 40 minutes that passed as I slowly snaked toward the counter. *sniff* I was about 6 bodies away from the front when the last thing I wanted sold out, so I aborted and headed over to UD who was still waiting for Stinky Bunz. Since he was about to go into a diabetic coma, I glanced around for the truck with the shortest line...which came in the form of Tasty Stacy's. How could you not love this uber-cute truck?

Thankfully, Stacy still had chips, sodas and a really good three-meat chili with cheddar cheese available (but not much else). I really liked the ratio of meat to beans (high) and the marriage of tomato-y sweet to peppery-heat. Good stuff.

As we savored the chili, we finally got within a stone's throw of the Stinky Bunz truck, which proved to be worth the wait. Oh, and I would remiss if I failed to mention the great convo we struck up with local fellow foodies Tawnya and Ken while in line. Shoutout!

They were sold out of the Kimchi Fried Rice by the time we ordered, but they threw a little of the fermented Korean veggies into some steamed rice to cheer us up. We loved our trio of tender, steamed Asian buns filled with beef, savory pork cubes and fried shrimp...all bursting with kimchi and fresh cilantro flavor. These babies rawked.

Stinky Bunz also offered "Sweet Bunz", which were the aforementioned buns fried and dusted with powdered sugar. Doughnut-like and decadent. Krispy who?

By this point (2:00 PM), the venue looked like the aftermath of the convergence of a horde of locusts and carpets were being rolled up all around us. Gone Bananas still had grub, though. Yay.

I have to love anyone who can multiply the calories in a banana by three while still providing 15% of my MDR of Vitamins B6 and C, 6% of both magnesium and iron, plus 2% of calcium. No broken hips for me! Usually, fruit doesn't excite me all that much, but this did. Phallic, generously dredged in dark chocolate and liberally embellished with colorful sprinkles ("jimmied for her pleasure", as it were)...what's not to love? Party on a stick, anyone?

I really appreciated the friendly warning to let this thing soften for 10 minutes before biting into it. Yeah...that'll happen.

The spousal unit ordered the frozen banana sorbet thingy they offered, which narrowly escaped falling into the "health food" category thanks to its Milky Way candy bar topping.

Gastropup and Sweet Molly also gave two paws up to the soft-serve frozen banana product.